Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a warning in The Telegraph today about what happens when governments force technology companies to weaken encryption across their products and platforms.

End-to-end encryption, the term given when only the sender and recipient of messages can decipher them, makes it harder for intelligence agencies to spy on digital communications. In theory, this unbreakable encryption method could be used by terrorists to plot attacks on the UK under the radar of the nation's intelligence services.

"When the public gets engaged, the press gets engaged deeply, it will become clear to people what needs to occur," Cook said. "You can't weaken cryptography. You need to strengthen it. You need to stay ahead of the folks that want to break it."

He added: "To protect people who use any products, you have to encrypt. You can just look around and see all the data breaches that are going on. These things are becoming more frequent. They can not only result in privacy breaches but also security issues. We believe very strongly in end-to-end encryption and no back doors.

"We don’t think people want us to read their messages. We don’t feel we have the right to read their emails."